Greg Romain is stepping down as Gowest Gold's president-CEO, and from its board of directors, effectively immediately.
Romain was with the Toronto-based gold exploration and mine development company for 13 years.
Replacing him on an interim basis is geologist Yungang Wu, a member of the company's technical team. A search has commenced for a successor.
Over the winter, the company had been running processing trials and was out raising financing to bring its Timmins flagship Bradshaw Gold Deposit into production.
Sign up for the Sudbury Mining Solutions weekly newsletter here.
“I would like to thank Greg for his time and passion over the years as Gowest developed the Bradshaw mine near Timmins Ontario," said Chairman C. Fraser Elliott in a statement.
"Greg’s background has been invaluable as Gowest faced many challenges in developing a new mine in Canada. I am pleased to advise that Greg has agreed to remain as a consultant to the Corporation to assist in the transition and as it enters into a new phase in its development.”
The Bradshaw deposit is 32 kilometres northeast of the city and is the prefeasibility stage.
Bradshaw contains an indicated gold resource of 420,000 ounces, grading 6.19 grams per tonne (g/t) within 2.1 million tonnes, and an inferred resource of 755,000 ounces, grading 6.47 g/t within 3.6 million tonnes.
Gowest processed its first gold ore from Bradshaw last winter, sending 23,000 tonnes of gold-bearing material, extracted from a bulk sample, through Northern Sun's Redstone Mill. More than 1,000 tonnes of concentrate was shipped off to the Humon Smelter in China.
The company also announced it's secured a $1-million bridge loan from Lush Land Investment Canada for general corporate purposes. The loan matures in June 2022. Elliot said the loan "represents a step in an anticipated refinancing of the corporation.”
